CIVIL WAR PENSION ~ Chaplain Wallace W. Thorp - 3rd New York Heavy Artillery

Certificate granting Wallace W. Thorpe a pension for his service in the Civil War, dated 2 Oct 1912 - he died the following year

I have long wanted to write about this particular ancestor's pension file.  However, it is the longest one I've ever received and full of handwritten declarations and affidavits.  258 pages to be exact. The thought of going through this pension file page by page and gleaning the important information, as I do with others, was daunting. I received this pension file back in November 2017.

Enter, AI - the genealogists best friend and quiet assistant. I used ChapGPT to glean information I had asked for, such as all names of family & witnesses, types of disability, places of residence and service details. Of course I proofread the entire document. But, what a relief to finally have this one done.

Chaplain Wallace Walter Thorp (also spelled Thorpe) is my half 2nd great granduncle, a half brother to my paternal 2nd great grandfather, Horace Henry Thorp, Sr.  

The opening pages of the pension file establish the administrative framework of both the invalid and widow’s pension claims for Chaplain Wallace W. Thorp. The file begins with National Archives cover sheets identifying Pension Certificate No. 771883, issued to Julia M. Thorp, widow of Wallace W. Thorp. These covers confirm Wallace W. Thorp as the veteran and Julia M. Thorp as the pensioner under the widow’s claim. ¹

Chaplain Wallace W. Thorp & his wife Julia M. Austin 
The writing on his photo, received from a descendant reads - Rev. Wallace W. Thorpe, Chaplin for the New York Volunteers, Wappingers Falls, N.Y.  April 11, 1898

Wife / Widow

·       Julia M. Austin Thorp

·       Listed as widow on pension certificate

·       Receiving pension as of Dec 1, 1913

·       Pension dropped June 18, 1914 (likely her date of death or remarriage)

Letter from Julia & Wallace's son, Theodore C. Thorpe, letting the Commissioner of Pension know that his mother died 10 Jun 1914

Early administrative cards identify Wallace W. Thorp as Chaplain, 3rd New York Heavy Artillery, appointed on 27 August 1864. War Department correspondence confirms that his resignation was accepted without misconduct. ⁷

The Declaration for Pension executed by Wallace W. Thorp states that he served as Chaplain in the 3rd New York Heavy Artillery and was honorably discharged. In this declaration, Thorp affirms that his disabilities originated during service and that he had not rendered service for the Confederacy nor engaged in disloyal conduct. ⁴

Nature of Service

·         He was a Chaplain, not a combat soldier.

·         Chaplains often:

Ø Conducted services

Ø Visited hospitals

Ø Assisted surgeons

Ø Wrote letters for soldiers

Ø Performed burials

Ø Provided moral support

From the earliest pension filings onward, Thorp consistently reported these conditions, which were used to justify his pension.^{6 8}

    ·       Severe swelling in both limbs
·       Acute sickness lasting 10+ days
·       Bed confinement
·       Needing watchers at night
·       Possible sciatic or rheumatic condition
·       Later use of crutches (though some witnesses did not recall this)
·       Paralysis agitans (likely Parkinson’s disease)
·       Bronchitis
·       General debility

Original invalid pension Claim No. 495,960. These cards record multiple pension acts under which the claim was reviewed, including the Acts of July 14, 1862; March 3, 1873; and June 27, 1890.²

An increase application under the Act of February 6, 1907, lists Wallace W. Thorp as residing in Binghamton, Broome County, New York, and confirms that he was already on the pension rolls prior to that date.³

Indexes to Special Examiner reports within these pages list early witnesses, including Dr. E. K. Everett and Dr. O. E. Carrier, whose depositions were later incorporated into the evidentiary record.⁵

Thorp was awarded an invalid pension under Claim No. 495,960, later receiving Certificate No. 102,273. His pension was repeatedly reviewed and increased, including under the liberal provisions of the Act of June 27, 1890, which required only proof of inability to perform manual labor. ⁹

The size of Civil War pension files varies greatly from several pages to several hundred.  However, they are worth their weight in gold in regards to the information contained in most of them. From the names of parents, spouses, siblings, neighbors to locations where the pensioner lived. You may also find actual vital records of births, deaths or marriage. And some lucky researchers have also received images of the soldier. I have not yet received one, but still hoping.

Other items of interest in this file include:

 Sister-in-law

·         Mrs. James Peterson

·         Identified as sister to Wallace’s wife

·         Lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

·         Mention in witness testimony

WITNESSES & ASSOCIATES

Oshkosh, Wisconsin witnesses

·         Dr. Ira Kizertel – dentist, testified about Wallace’s health

·         O. E. Barrier – church member, testified about illness

·         Mrs. O. E. Barrier – housekeeper, testified about family and health

·         Morris Jones – businessman

·         E. P. Sawyer – prominent Oshkosh figure

·         M. Williamson – church deacon

·         E. Class – sexton of Congregational Church

·         Trickwine – church member    

1908 pension declaration witnesses

·         Vandrell & Chammy – residents of Lestershire

·         Say. Andersen – resident of Lestershire

·         William White – Notary Public

·         Mabel Vergason – witness 

RESIDENCES (Pages 1–25)

Wallace gives a detailed list of where he lived after the war:

1867–1869
·         Oshkosh, Wisconsin
1870–1890
·         Marshalltown, Iowa
1890–1895
·         Center Point, Iowa (written as “Centerville” but context suggests Center Point)
1895–1907
·         Millington, Illinois
·         Falling Waters, New York
·         Lestershire, New York (now Johnson City)
Birthplace
·         Skaneateles, New York Born January 17, 1833
 
Residence at time of 1907–1908 pension filings
·         Lestershire, Broome County, New York

He married Julia M. Thorp on 30 May 1861 in Binghamton, New York, officiated by Rev. Zachariah Paddock. The couple resided continuously in Binghamton, Broome County, New York. ¹⁰

Notarized record of the marriage of Wallace W. Thorpe to Julia M. Thorpe (although her maiden name was Austin) in Binghamton, N.Y. on 30 May 1861

Wallace W. Thorp died on 17 November 1913, aged 77, while still a pensioner. Following his death, his widow Julia M. Thorp filed a dependent pension claim, which was approved after submission of affidavits proving marriage, cohabitation, and absence of remarriage. ¹¹

Pension card showing that Wallace W. Thorpe died 17 Nov 1913 and the bureau was notified on 12 Dec 1913 (see bottom portion of card)

You can clearly see the value in these documents for knowing where to look for your ancestor, records pertaining to his or her life, family members etc.  

Footnotes 

1. National Archives pension cover sheets, pages 1–2.
2. Pension index and administrative cards, pages 3–4.
3. Increase application under Act of Feb. 6, 1907, page 5.
4. Declaration for Pension by Wallace W. Thorp, page 7.
5. Index to Special Examiner’s Reports, page 9.
6. Depositions of Wallace W. Thorp, pages 17–20.
7. War Department service verification, pages 100–101.
8. Early depositions and medical testimony, pages 1–25.
9. Pension increase determinations, pages 51–99.
10. Marriage certification and affidavits, pages 13–14.
11. Widow’s pension claim and affidavits, pages 9–25.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2026   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ~ Edna Mabel Bowden January 1st 1890

 

I’d like to wish a Happy Heavenly Birthday to my maternal grandaunt, Edna Mabel Bowden, who went by the nickname Denny.

She was a younger sister to my maternal grandmother, Florence Lee Nora Bowden, our family historian. My Grandmother’s Journal

Until last week, I had never seen a picture of her. Read to the end to find out how I obtained one.

Edna was born in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio to parents Robert Edward Lee Bowden (1863-1906) and Florence Hunter (1869-1946).  Her father made a living by working as a brakeman for the railroad. I have no census records of this family living together.  As Edna’s parents married in 1887 and there is no 1890 census available (insert sad genealogist). 

Her parents divorced 17 Jul 1899, when Edna would have been 9 yrs. old. Her mother then operated a boarding house in Covington, Kenton, Kentucky, until at least 1906.

Edna married John Brown Duncan (1883-1945) on 11 Jul 1907 in Windsor, Essex, Ontario, Canada. They had one child a daughter, Ruth Estelle Duncan, born 23 Mar 1908 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. In 1910 John was working as a Clerk in Automobile Works. Edna was listed as not working.

Edna and John were married just 4 years when they divorced in 1911. This would leave Edna alone, raising a 3 yr old daughter. At the time of her marriage in 1907, Edna had been working as a telephone operator. By 1910 she had no occupation. I have looked, but not located her in any city directories between 1910 and 1920.

By the time of the 1920 census, Edna was remarried to a man named Elmer W. Cunningham (1891-1946). They had married on 16 Nov 1918 in Bibb County, Georgia. Georgia! How did she end up down there?

The couple was living with her sister, Florence and family (Joseph, Dorothy, Robert and Joan). Edna’s daughter Ruth Duncan, age 11 was living in the household as well as Edna’s mother Florence and her husband George Bell.  A very full household.  They lived at 300 Clarendon Ave. in Detroit, Michigan. This particular home is one my mother recalls from when she was a young girl – she was born in 1924.

The house no longer stands. I drove by the location in 2012 during a visit to Detroit.

1920 census, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

It seems that marriage didn’t work out for my grandaunt Edna, as she and Elmer Cunningham divorced and she went on to marry a man named C. W. Wood. At least that’s what I think his name was. I spent hours yesterday trying to find a marriage record for Edna to anyone named Wood.  The myriad of ways I searched should have uncovered some kind of record.

Today, I looked again at her death certificate from 1932 and am wondering if his name could have been E.W. Wood?  Now the search will begin anew.

Sadly, Edna only lived to age 42. She died 23 Feb 1932 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri.  She is buried in Mt. Moriah Cemetery. You can visit her memorial here #102913411. She is resting next to her mother Florence Hunter Bowden Bell who died in 1946.  Florence does not have a headstone, but Edna does.

According to her death certificate she died of Toxemia from arsenical dermatitis. No idea who she would have been exposed to arsenic that would have seeped into her skin.

Edna’s only child, Ruth was 23 when her mother died.  Two years later she married Edward C. Hogue in Jackson Co., Missouri. The couple had no children. So, this becomes the end of the line for Edna.

Just how did I finally obtain a photo of Edna Mabel “Denny” Bowden?

I went to our mailbox week before last and found several Christmas cards.  One envelope was from my cousin, Rick & his wife, Mary in Michigan.  I opened it and was SHOCKED to find it contained, not only a Christmas card, but also a smaller envelope which contained a very old and damaged photo.  I called and spoke to Mary who told me she found this among some of my grandmother’s belongings a few months ago and had been meaning to send it. Everything belonging to my maternal grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne, who died in 1986 in Michigan, had been left at my cousin’s home.

Florence Hunter Bowden with her daughter, Florence on the left and sweet Edna with her dark curls on the right - this would have been probably 1894-1895

I immediately recognized my grandmother as a young girl and my great grandmother. I knew the other younger girl in the photo couldn’t be anyone but Edna.

There she was with her Mom and older sister. To say I was thrilled is to put it mildly.

I was able to use MyHeritage to clean up and repair this photo. I was amazed at how good it came out.

That then is the story of my grandaunt Edna. I am hoping this will be the first of more stories/blog posts about ancestors, this year.  I have been woefully neglectful over the past 2 yrs in keeping up with my posts.  I blame it on this beautiful place I moved to in 2023.  Montana makes me want to be outside all the time.  Darn hard to write blog posts when I’m outside.  LOL!

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2026   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY ~ Using AI to transcribe old probate records

Image created by ChatGPT

We all are aware that AI is and has been being used in genealogy for some time now. 

Whether you’ve embraced it or avoided it, is a personal decision.

I like to explore new technologies as they are available and have been tinkering with AI for about a year now. 

What I’ve been doing is nothing compared to other genealogists who have jumped in whole hog with both feet. A good example of that would be our friend and blogging guru, Randy Seaver of Geneamusings.  If you want to see what he has been experimenting with I encourage you to visit his blog. He has an entire section/tab devoted to this subject.

For my part I have used it to transcribe some obituaries and probate records and to create a few images. I used both ChatGPT and CoPilot for those tasks. With excellent success.

This week I used ChatGPT to transcribe a handwritten probate from 1745, for my paternal 7^th great grandfather, Richard Everett. Please click here to see a post about this ancestor.

Here is what the probate record looks like.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it)

First 2 pages of probate record for Richard Everett - 1745

What I found was that I’m getting better at using this tool.  Better at asking the questions in a way that gets me the results I am looking for.

I began by uploading the first double page of this probate and asking “please transcribe this document exactly.”

ChatGPT asked a question about layout, I answered and got my transcription. 

However, as I read through it (which is critical so that we can catch errors or hallucinations).

General definition of hallucinations when referring to AI  

“AI hallucinations are incorrect or misleading results that AI models generate. These errors can be caused by a variety of factors, including insufficient training data, incorrect assumptions made by the model, or biases in the data used to train the model.”

There was a phrase that AI used over and over in the transcription, that did not appear in the original document.  I then asked this – 

“can you please re read this document and remove the words "sheeps for life" as that phrase does not appear in the document. Try to read the document again and do a better job of transcription”

Much to my surprise (because I haven’t done this process a lot) Chat did what I asked and the next version was nearly perfect.

I was then asked if I wanted a full cleaned transcript of all pages as a continuous document, including OCR that is searchable.

I answered that I would love that.

Here is a portion of the text from the image above, created by ChatGPT.  I found a couple of errors and will make the corrections as necessary.  But, what a time saver this is for us.

That was done and then I was asked – “Would you like me to create a genealogical abstract and analysis next — summarizing heirs, relationships, property, and inferred family structure (standard NEHGS-style abstract)? That would make it ready for citation or inclusion in a compiled genealogy.”

Again I said yes.  And I was truly amazed at the summary Chat created for me. 

This entire analysis is 5 pages. But, what a way to summarize what was in this will, including relationships.  

I'm so impressed!

🕮 Genealogical Abstract & Analysis

CONCLUSION – I am convinced that I will continue to use AI as my virtual assistant in my research. I hope you will give it a try.  And, please do let me know if you do.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2025   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Paternal 7th great grandparents - the Everett family of Massachusetts

 

Doing a bit of follow up to some research I did while I was at Rootstech and the Family History Library, this past March.

I don’t know about you, but it generally takes me quite a while to get back to some of this research I do while I was at the FHL.

One family I found information on while I as there, was the Richard Everett family of Dedham, Massachusetts.  This family is linked to my Mayflower line, and may lead me to another Mayflower line, yet to be determined.

In this case I am trying to prove the marriage & children of Richard Everett and his wife, Mary Fuller.  They would be my paternal 7^th great grandparents. And, I’d like to have more proof of their relationship and the children they had together.

NOTE: When we are researching our ancestors back in the 1600’s we must do a bit of digging.  Because we all know just because someone else’s tree says it’s so, doesn’t mean we believe it.

What have I located so far, in the way of proof?

Let’s begin with the birth record for Richard Everet (also spelled Everett) in 1683 in Dedham, Colonial Massachusetts.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it) 

Birth record - Richard Everit, son of John and Elizabeth born 24 Aug 1683

Now, how about a marriage record for Richard & his wife, Mary Fuller.

Marriage record - Richard Everet to Mary Fuller - 3 Mar 1708 in Massachusetts

NOTE: These are images of the actual records and not an index that has been interpreted by a transcriber. It’s important to find the originals whenever we can.

Here’s another source with names, dates and places.  Remember these kinds of documents are submitted with proof, however, the proof is not provided with these images. It is a document/application submitted by someone.  However, what it does give us is leads, that combined with other evidence allows us to draw a conclusion.

Application for Sons of the American Revolution provided by a descendant of Richard Everett and Mary Fuller

Here’s another reference to the marriage of Richard & Mary.

U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900

Name	Mary Fuller
Gender	Female
Spouse Name	Richard Everett
Spouse Birth Place	MA
Spouse Birth Year	1683
Marriage Year	1708
Number Pages	1

One of my favorite sources are wills/probate records.  When our ancestors were dying or suspected they were nearing that age, they often made wills.  It was important to them that their spouses, children and any other heirs were taken care of.  These can be gold mines of information, including married names for daughters, locations of living descendants, names of other family members etc.

Here then, is the will of Richard Everett dated 1745/6 in Dedham, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 

In it he names his “dearly beloved wife” Mary and his sons, Joshua, Jeremiah, Jonathan, Israel and Timothy. He later mentions his “beloved” daughter Mary Maxey, “beloved” daughter Bethiah Day, “beloved’ daughters Hannah & Abigail Everett.

What I learned from this document, was that there were 2 sons and 3 daughters I had not yet discovered for this couple. More research into these additional children will be done.

And, I went back to the Massachusetts Town & Vital Records and located the births of Timothy, Jonathan, Isarael, Bethiah born 18 Nov 1721 and another Bethiah born 9 October 1722 and Hannah.  Because there are two daughters named Bethiah, born within a year of one another, I will look for a death of the first one.

In conclusion.  

• Have I found enough evidence to prove that Richard Everett married Mary Fuller? 
• And that they had 5 sons and 3 or 4 daughters? Yes, I believe I have.

Do you have any input? Would you have come to a different conclusion?

Sources:

¹Massachusetts, U.S. Town & Vital Records 1620-1988

² U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900

³ U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970

⁴ Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991

⁵ FindAGrave memorial for Mary Fuller Everett #64356211

⁶ Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2025   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION